Age of the Sith
by cyanideadvocate
Summary: A powerful sith lord finds himself stuck on a primitive world far from civilized space. But where most would see this as a terrible curse to overcome, he sees an opportunity. Halkeginia will be dominated by sith or it will be destroyed. Update: I'm moving soon and reattaining a stable internet connection could take any where between a few months to a few years.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer! both Familiar of Zero &amp; Star Wars the old republic are owned by their respective bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh huge bitch bluh bluh! CONTINUE!**

**1**

Cold, dark, quiet and lonely. Normally the ideal place for meditation or study but circumstance made such activity's inadvisable and impractical, it didn't matter much any way he would not come all the way to Korriban for just a few days meditation. No, he was here for business not for training or relaxation. His mind wandered back to the message that had convinced him to come here to the ancient tomb of an unknown sith lord alone with a vague promise of ancient sith knowledge. It was a trap no doubt and he had come prepared for sith assassins or bounty hunters, an assortment of lethal gadgetry hung from his belt as testament to his readiness to combat even the most skilled of assassins. What worried him however was the obviousness of the trap there had to be something else to it, an angle or a twist he couldn't have possibly expected.

He quickly scanned the chamber for possible vantage points that might be used agents him, or that he may be able to use himself if things went south. And they often did. The room was needlessly large and was filled with human sized statues of ancient sith warriors which one could easily hide in, it was so dark that you would not be able to tell an assassin from a carving. Instead of a ceiling their was an elaborate connection of catwalks that stretched out above him for several stories only letting in small pockets of natural light.

With the force he could sense an elaborate system of tunnels and vent underneath the floor and in the walls

This room made him uncomfortable to say the least, the various different ways one could ambush another was unsettling. It would not surprise him if ambushes were the only purpose to this chamber as it seemed to have no other practical function or reason to exist. Unfortunate since this was the place the message detailed as the meeting place, though it would have been naive of him to expect any different.

In the still silent air his breathing became loud and heavy even the lightest of footsteps echoed across the chamber. If the hypothetical assassins were indeed hiding in wait they could easily hear him if they couldn't see him already.

He reached out with the force and felt his surroundings, nothing, no one was there.

'_No_' he thought to himself ' _I refuse to believe I was called all the way out here for a friendly chat. Perhaps they know how to hide their presence, or have some kind of advanced cloaking device_'.

He continued to search his surroundings with every sense he had available, nothing, every nook an cranny he scanned was empty. His breathing became heaver and louder as he began to extend his awareness further and further beyond the walls of this chamber and into the surrounding rooms and tunnels.

"Ah, your here already". He whipped around to face a young pureblood acolyte standing in the doorway in front of him alone and armed with only a training saber.

This only worried him more, he did not see, hear or feel her enter the room even in his state paranoid hyper awareness. How did a mere acolyte hide herself from him? If he didn't notice her who else could have sneaked in here or was he already surrounded on all sides by sith assassins and hired bounty hunters, was she simply a distraction? If so he had to admit that she was a very clever distraction.

"So, I assume you brought the artifact with you and did not call me out to the most obscure, remote sith ruin on korriban just to waste my time". His voice was cold and authoritative with a small hint of impatience and agitation.

"Of course my lord, I would never dream of wasting your time". Her voice was strong and confident with a small hint of sass.

It was the confidence that that threw him off, she was but a mere acolyte addressing a member of the dark council.

Did this worry him? Yes, her's was a voice who knew that she was safe and that things were going her way regardless of weather or not he behaved himself.

"And"? He would not let his nervousness or his suspicion show in his voice. He was grateful for his mask right now, it was times like these that made all the trouble he went through to get it seem worth it.

She did not answer his questions but instead she reached inside her pack and bring from it a fist sized holocron

"This is why I asked you here, and my hope is to earn your favor with it". He studied the artifact from a distance not wanting to get any closer to her. Was it a detonator disguised as a holocron? Perhaps she would throw it at him once he got within range and reveille herself as a sith assassin and attempt to kill him in the name of her master or perhaps seven others will appear behind him to stab him in the back.

No, it was not a detonator. He could feel dark energy emanating from it. That was in fact an ancient sith artifact but that did not mean anything. He began to walk toward her slowly and cautiously.

Was he just being too paranoid? '_hmph, not paranoid enough_'! He thought to himself as he move ever closer to the young sith pureblood. Could it be that all this was is a desperate attempt to gain his favor by giving him gifts?

'_Of course not! When is it ever that simple? Even if she is here to present me with the artifact like she said in her message she will have an angle, something she will get for herself from this exchange and it would no doubt be something I would be hesitant toe give" ._

He stopped at arms length from her and studied her more carefully up close. She was young likely the same age as he was when he entered the academy though it can be difficult to say with purebloods they tend to age strangely.

He looked down from her and placed his eyes on the artifact in question, he had never seen one quite like it. It was completely smooth on all sides with glowing red lines racing across it's jet black exterior.

He reached his hand out toward the artifact stopping just short of touching it.

"What is your name, acolyte"? She seemed more surprised by this question than anything else though he did not see why, it was a perfectly reasonable question to ask.

" Thalia, my lord". She replied this time without the unwavering confidence that had been so worrying

to him.

Her new found timidness had been all he needed to to take the artifact from her, though he was not discounting the possibility of betrayal.

He placed his hand on the holocron taking it from her and as soon as it left her hand its deep red glow had started to fade to be replaced with a bright green. The light began to glow more and more intensely, its green lines raced up his arm and across his chest.

He tried to drop the artifact but his arms would not move and his fingers would not relent their death grip on the holocron, he tried to move his feet but they were glued firmly to the ground.

As the light engulfed him he began hear laughter, her laughter. He had been a fool to underestimate his situation and now he would pay the ultimate price.

Thalia watched as the artifact ate away at his very being piece by piece until only the memory of his short pathetic existence remained. Soon Thalia would erase even that.

'_Still it's a shame the device could only be used once._' She thought to herself while staring into the space where the robed sith once stood. ' _At least it was well spent, if that fool had been allowed to spread his heretical views any more than he already had the empire would have truly suffered_'.

she turned her back to the scene of the murder and made her way back to the academy before the overseers began to suspect she was gone.

If all went as she had planed not only would she be home for dinner, but soon the death of Darth Occulus will be but a small footnote in the story of her glory.

**LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL**

A ray of sunlight bled through the curtains and spread itself across her face, she opened her eyes slowly only to shut them tight at first glance of the sun.

she quickly sprang out of bed and opened her eyes for a second time. A familiar room was laid out before her furnished with the finest crafts money could afford and stocked with the most exquisite finery.

This is the room of Louise le blanc de la Valiere and a great effort had been made to ensure that it looked the part. Louise quickly dressed herself and retrieved her wand. She took a moment to look at it, study it closely.

_'just this once'_ she bargained with herself 'j_ust work for me this once and I will gladly never pick up another wand ever again'._

Today is the day she will prove herself a mage, or return home a disgrace. She did her best to not think about it but the more she tried to push it to the back of her mind the more it forced it's way to the center of her attention.

She hurried out of the academy and across the green feilds as quickly as her little legs could allow and as a result was one of the first to arrive at the summoning circle. She immediately began to regret her punctuality as the few students present had turned their gaze from each other to stare unrelentingly at her.

"So Louise, today is the big day huh." Just as the voice behind her spoke the other students went back to chatting among themselves. " You sure talked a big game yesterday, I wonder if you'll be able to deliver".

"Shut up Kirche." Louise turned face her long time rival Kirche von Zerbst and her her petite blue haired lackey Tabitha " I'll summon the most powerful familiar imaginable and soon you'll all grovel before me". There was a short silence, just long enough for Louise to regret opening her mouth before the whole class erupted in laughter.

"Poor little Zero, that really is all you are." a random student to her left interjected."You haven't been able to cast a single spell since you came here and this summoning ritual will be no different".

The laughter and taunts of her fellow classmates pierced her heart like a poisoned blade had she not already been used to suffering their insults on a daily bases she would have surely broken down and cried in front of them.

Just as it had become apparent that the entire class was now laughing at her the teacher sent to oversee the summoning ritual had arrived and the crowd immediately ceased their bulling and gathered around him anticipating the start their ritual.

Louise watched in absolute horror and awe as the most impressive creatures imaginable came in all shapes and sizes to pared with a student. There was simply no way Louise would be able to compete with any of them.

'_No!' _She thought to herself.' _My familiar will be the most beautiful and powerful one summoned today'! _No sooner than she convinced herself of the greatness of her future familiar than her least favorite red haired germanian came over to introduce her flaming salamander familiar.

"Oh, hello Zero. I haven't introduced you to flame yet have I"? The red salamander sat loyally at Kirche's feet awaiting instruction from its germanian mistress.

"No, and I have no intention of meeting the wretched thing"! Louise retorted angrily.

"Now Louise, is that any way for the future summoner of the worlds most grand and powerful familiar to act?" She replied in a mocking tone as her usual unrelenting smile widened to let out a light chuckle as if Kirche was prematurely celebrating her ultimate victory over Louise." I just came to say that I'm sorry for being so rough on you. So I'll make you a deal: if you can summon anything, anything at all I will personally apologies for tormenting you and admit that you are the better mage".

Louise knew that she was only saying that to mock her but she could not help herself from filling every square inch of herself with hatred and rage. She was going to make Kirche eat those words even if it was the last thing she did.

"Louise le blanc de la Valiere"! The words of her instructor brought Louise back to reality.

"Well, it's your moment of truth" Kirche whispered into her ear. " Don't worry. If you fail I could always hire you to be my handmaiden".

Louise ignored her rivals taunts and approached the summoning circle prepared to perform her ritual.

She tried her best to dispel the doubts that plauged her mind but too much was at stake. the rest of her life would be decided in this spell. She could not afford to fail.

**LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL**

Darth Occulus was dragged into complete oblivion, total sensory deprivation left him alone with only his own thoughts to distract him.

Was he dead? Had the acolyte succeeded in killing him? If so was this the afterlife? So many questions filled his head, unfortunately it seemed he would not get answers any time soon. He tried moving his arms but unfortunately he would remain oblivious as to weather or not he could since he could neither feel nor see them.

He began to lose track of the time he had spent in this state of suspended animation, had it been hours or days he simply could not tell. He knew only one thing for certain: if he was left to his own devices to much longer he would go insane.

Louise brandished her wand at the summoning circle and at that moment Occlus's eyes opened, he could see a strong green glow emanating from his right hand which he could now feel tightly wrapped around the artifact

"My name is Louise francoise le blanc de la Valiere"! The words echoed in his head, filling every corner of his mind.

Louise concentrated as hard as she could, she would not settle for some mundane familiar like a dog or a bird.

No, she would settle for nothing less then the most amazing and fantastical of familiars.

"Pentagon of the five elemental powers, heed my summoning"! Darth Occulus tried to turn his head to search for the source of the voice, but alas he remained paralyzed.

She did not want a simple mindless familiar, she wanted a intelligent and wise familiar who could guide her and perform great feats of intellect.

"And bring forth my familiar"! He felt a heaviness wash over him, his eyes began to close and his senses began to pull away from him. This time sending him not into a state of oblivion like before but instead into a deep sleep.

She would not stand for a weak pathetic familiar, she wanted a strong, powerful, dominating familiar to lay wast to her enemies and bring those who laughed at her and made fun of her to their knees.

A/N: So if Star Wars is now owned by Disney does that mean it'll be in the next Kingdom Hearts? I don't know how I feel about that then again I haven't played 2 so maybe my opinion isn't valid.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't know how long a fanfic chapter should be so for now I'm sticking with 2500 to 3500.**

Louise had fully expected an explosion, she had full confidence in her ability's however she was not so naive as to think that there was no way this could backfire on her. Fortunately the widely feared and anticipated explosion was not an event fare had set in stone. Instead the space in front of Louise glowed a bright green almost like a small emerald sun. The light grew steadily until it was the size of the circle and died out, in it's place a man lay in the grass unconscious.

He wore a dark red and black cloak with a steel mask under his hood; his attire looked expensive but were hardly worthy of a noble.

"Ha, Louise the Zero summoned a commoner." the students once again started to laugh at her. " She probably didn't even actually summon him; I bet she just picked him up off the streets and dressed him up"!

"ENOUGH"! The overseeing teacher roared in disapproval like a beast protecting it's cub. " This is no way for nobility to act." He turned his gaze from the crowd to address Louise. " You need to seal the contract quickly Louise".

"W-with... him!?" Louise's face blushed intensely. "But Mr. Colbert, he's a commoner! Can't I just retry"?

"I'm afraid not." Colbert shook his head. " The springtime summoning ritual is a sacred event, a retry would be heretical". He had half a mind to let her try again but this man was an unknown, he simply could not let an anomaly like him out into Tristan without close watch.

Louise knew that she wouldn't be able to convince Colbert to give her a second chance; there was only one way this would end for her.

She knelt down next to him and laid her hands on his steel mask. She was surprised that it came of so easily; there didn't seem to be any force at work actually holding it to his face.

He looked to be no older than an academy graduate, he had dark hair and pale skin that was riddled with scars, the biggest of which looked as if looked as if some one had branded him like horse. Louise would not call him ugly by any stretch of the word, but it was obvious that he was no noble as he lacked the aristocratic complexion that they pride themselves with.

Her classmates inched closer to Louise as if this event was a play put on for their entertainment. She could here their whispers and their occasional snicker as they eagerly anticipated their second chance to see her fail.

She raised her wand and aimed at his chest. "Pentagon of the fife elemental powers, grant your blessings upon this creature and bind him as my familiar"! Louise bent over and sealed the contract with a kiss.

No sooner had her lips touched his than she felt a surge of power shoot through her. It was a dark and terrible energy that left only pain in it's wake, no pain more intense than in her left hand; it burned sizzled as jolts of purple lightning carved dark black runes on her skin.

The students who had gathered around her to see her bind the commoner or blow him to smithereens had now backed up out of fear being caught in the dark aura that now surrounded her completely, even Colbert stayed a nice safe distance from Louise.

In the aftermath of Louise's magical episode both she and her summon lay unconscious on the soft spring grass. Mr. Colbert wasted no time ordering the students to disperse and getting both the young Valliere and the man beside her to the infirmary, as he held her in his arms he noticed the markings on her hand. Colbert maneuvered himself to get a better look the runes.

He had never seen a summoning spell fail, or backfire. He was curious to see what the runes said; he felt a wave of disappointment when he found that the runes were in a foreign language, there was simply no way to decipher them. He wasn't exited that this had happened to the poor girl, but if he were able to get some insight on this strange phenomenon he would be able to gain untold insight on the nature of the summoning ritual; a great benefit to the academy and to those who study here should he uncover the cause behind this unusual summoning.

Upon reaching the infirmary Colbert had reached a conclusion: to properly study this summon, he would have to start with the summoned; he ordered the servants to bring the mans belongings to his office for study. Since the man was unconscious Colbert would have to learn what he could about him with what little he had to go on; who he was, where he was from, and where he fit in his culture. Until he could question the man himself these would be the focus of his study's.

**LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL**

**TIME TRAVEL!**

**LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL**

Siesta of Tarbes had worked for the academy for some time now, and enjoyed the many perks that came with working for the worlds most wealthy nobles. None of these perks however were as wonderfully devious or as entertaining as the plentiful supply of Royal gossip and wild rumors from around Halkeginia.

Such talk spreads like a plague among the academy and the story on every ones tongue for the past few days is mistress Valliere's summoning. Louise Valliere was not cruel like some of the students, whom often sadistically torment the staff, but she did come to represent much of what was wrong with the nobility. She was snobbish, rude, loud, obnoxious, and was completely talentless.

Siesta harbored no hatred toward the young mistress and did not wish her fate upon her, however she would not be ashamed to admit she was glad it happened as it did make for some juicy gossip.

Siesta stood over the bed of the summoned outlander admiring his foreign features. His face was common enough he had pale skin with several scars running across his body, pitch black hair that was tangled in an twisted mess that only the most skilled of scholar could decipher and his nose was bent and crooked as if it had seen it's share of barfights.

She found these traits charming in there own way, but the most noteworthy feature and the one that ha sparked the most rumors, even more than is outlandish clothing, was a large mark on the side of his face where it seemed some one had him branded with a hot iron.

This had been the source of many of the kitchens cook's theory's of a dangerous killer who stalked young beautiful women and tortured them relentlessly until their feeble minds broke and would simply leave them to die of starvation. She was pretty sure that he was only saying this to scare her away from him.

Siesta herself liked to believe that he was a rebel who fought for the rights of the common folk, and was labeled a traitor and branded as a sign of his traitorous views and proceeded to ware the mask in shame. It was a naive fantasy she had to admit but it was the only one that did not paint him in bad colors, and it made it easier to be the one who had to tend to his unconscious body.

"You there, servant." Siesta turned around to face Louise, who had a look on her face as if she had to swim through a sea of laughing students to get to the here. "Why are you just standing over my familiar like that"?

'_Your familiar_'? She thought to herself. fortunately Siesta knew better than to provoke nobles like that, especially wealthy ones like Louise Valliere. "I was assigned to watch over him mi'lady".

"Well?" Siesta noticed the bandages wrapped around Louise's hand, concealing the familiar runes.

"I'm afraid that their doesn't seem to be anything actually wrong with him. We don't know why he hasn't awoken yet, we've tried everything we-".

"Unacceptable"! Louise interrupted now shouting in anger. "I want to speak with him now"

" I'm sorry, there really isn't anything I can do". The worst part of working for nobles without a doubt is being assigned impossible tasks. She could only thank the founder that Louise didn't actually expect her to clap her hands and fix everything that was wrong in the world.

"fine." she let out a deep sigh. "leave, I wish to be alone".

**LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOOLOLOLOLOLOLO**

Darth Occulus felt a sense of peace and intimate connection to the force the likes of which he had never felt before. He felt waves of energy wash over him, purging his hatred and scrubbing the darkness from his very being.

He opened his eyes and saw... well the force. What else could it have been? It welcomed him and embraced him forgiving his sins, like a magnificent father forgiving the mistakes of his son, and filling his every sense with happiness and pure unconditional love.

Was this the afterlife? He hoped so, to be with this fatherly entity just a few moments more he would have done anything, just to feel loved and accepted a few moments longer.

Then he felt a strange movement run through his body, like someone had put their hand on his shoulders and shook him. It was an abrupt interruption of the connection between him and the fatherly entity, the entity was not at all pleased with this transgression; even though it's anger was not directed towards him, Darth Occulus could feel it's aggression, hate and rage on a level of closeness and intimacy the likes of which no one else could hope to understand.

The intrusion on their connection had sent ripples through the very being of both him and the entity, replacing the love and joy they had shared and replaced it with seething hate and unbridled rage.

Louise placed her left hand on her familiar and tried her best to shake him out of his deep slumber, his face twitched showing mild irritation. Immediately she felt a stinging sensation emanating from the

runes concealed by her bandages. It was a mild jolt, but still very painful to Louise whom was not at all used to feeling pain.

She had buried her face into the bed in front of her gripping the sheets tightly in each hand and did all she could not to scream in what the undisciplined mind could only label as agony.

She turned her head to face her familiar; the side of her face still buried in the deep into the bed.

His deep yellow eyes were open and fixed on her bandaged hand. Louise's face was flushed in embarrassment, her familiar had awoken and his first sight was his master in a state of weakness writhing in pain.

"You should get that looked at by a professional." He spoke after a short silence" There's no telling what other symptoms you might experience". His voice was cold and emotionless yet very imposing, it was a voice that commanded respect and authority.

Occulus had little clue as to where he was, there were no guards watching over him, and the young pink haired girl, while force sensitive, was obviously not hostile(and appeared to be experiencing problems of her own). He quickly took note of his surroundings, the room he was in appeared to be made of stone and was lighted with candles and torches; was this a some kind of makeshift hospital set up in an old ruin? No, this operation had been here for some time, he noticed a desk in the corner where it appeared that someone had fully set up to make themselves comfortable and there were too many beds for this to be something that was set up in a hurry.

'l_et's start simple_' he thought to himself. 'we don't know whose company we're in and until I know I will have to keep as much under wraps as we can get away with'

"where am I"? He asked keeping any sense of weakness or emotion (which after his rude awakening he felt a lot of) out of his voice.

The young pinkett decided that she was done rudely staring at him and spoke up.

"You are at the Tristan academy of magic." she exclaimed with a sense of pride in her voice. This response unfortunately only raised more questions than it answered.

"And were would that be" he asked in the vain hope of getting an actual answer out of her.

"Well, in Tristan of course." There was a sense of impatience slipping into her voice as well as mild agitation.

"Of course". The words spilled out of his mouth before he could hide the worry that had been creeping into is voice. Luckily she seemed to be completely oblivious. It was obvious that she was no reliable source of information.

Darth Occulus once again scanned his surroundings and took stock of his situation as he may have to make an escape on foot. His eyes widened as a realization struck him like a bolt of force lightning.

"Where is my equipment"? He asked using all of his willpower to hide his inner panic.

The girl looked caught off guard by his question "Professor Colbert ordered your belongings to be taken to his office for study".

_'Oh, no. we can't be having that'_ he instantly remembered the arsenal of lethal sith talismans, amulets and weapons he carried on his person on a daily basis. "Take me to him, now"!

Louise was astounded that her familiar had the nerve to make demands of her."Y-you can't command me!" she placed her hands behind her back." I'm your master, not the other way around"!

The man looked confused he looked around the room and then back to Louise with a look of malice and anger.

"If your some kind of slaver then I can assure you that taking me was the worst mistake you've made in your life". Louise felt another jolt in her hand, though not nearly as painful as the first it was still a very unpleasant experience.

"N-no" she quickly grabbed her hand and tried to squeeze it as hard as she could desperate for anything to sooth the pain." I summoned you as my familiar and bound you to me; there hasn't been slavery in Halkeginia in century's ."

he looked at her as if what she had just said was the stupidest thing he had ever heard.

What is your name"? He asked finally snapping out of his surprised stupor.

" My name is Louise le blanc de la valliere"! She made no attempts to hide the pride in her voice and no attempt to hide her emotion. Darth Occulus could accept a noble failure, respect it even. But this "Louise" was simply oblivious to the situation she found herself in.

It all clicked together, nobody here knew he was a sith lord, he was far from Imperial space and his "master" thought she was in control.

'_A situation we will take full advantage of_'. A sly smirk curled onto his face " Louise, you will take me to my belongings".

"I will take you to you belongings". Louise did not speak, rather these words simply fell out of her mouth. "Come familiar, Mr. Colbert's office is this way"

Darth Occulus sprang out of bed like a man on a mission, and that mission is to avoid being blown up, disintegrated, incinerated or horribly mutated into an ageless lump of rotting flesh.

**A/N I'm beginning to get the stinging suspicion that this story is paced much to slowly. **


	3. Lost to the warp

Hello everybody. I regret to inform those anticipating the next update of this fanfiction that due to my failures to observe the proper rituals and appease the machine spirit the omnissiah has seen fit to punish me by erasing the data on my hardrive. Local tech priests have informed me that my literary work could not be retrieved due to the corruption that had been manifesting within my computer, they have also expressed disgust with my inability to back up my files.

This of course means that the chapters I have been working on were lost the the horrors of the warp, never again to be read by mortalkind. I will continue writing however it has yet to be seen weather or not I will continue writing this particular piece or move on to other projects.

Praise be to the omnissiah.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This has to be at least the 8th time I've tried to wright this chapter, due to problem after problem stacking on top of each other and making my life difficult(in writing this as well as real life issues) so I apologizes that this chapter is hells of rushed as this is only the second draft( I usually go over it thrice or more)but it's out now and I can finally stop fretting over it. Maybe one day I will do a re write. But not likely.

Nothing in the world annoyed Occulus more than having his time so clearly and brazenly wasted; especially in a time of emergency. This girl may not have known that there was an emergency but still. Did she have no respect for her elders? Or perhaps she simply has no concept of common courtesy. As a slave one of the most heinous crimes you can commit in the eyes of the masters is to waste time. Even as a lord Occulus made every effort to move the imperial machine along without fuss from it's gears. Perhaps this was all his inner slave speaking, but nothing, not even the most open of challenges and insults had insulted or infuriated him as much as this little girl moving along at a leisurely pace. So blatantly wasting time and halting efficiency. The worst part was that if he were to try and hurry this along by either telling this little brat why they needed to hurry, threatening her life or using another mind trick on her in public, he would at best draw unwanted attention to himself or at worst cause a panic. And until he knew exactly what situation he was in he didn't want to risk anything.

It was rather obvious that this academy trained force sensitive students, he could feel their presence for miles around. What struck Occulus as strange was that it obviously was not a Sith facility, and he was damned well sure it wasn't a Jedi temple either. It seemed to lack many of the most basic accommodations that he had become accustom to. Automatic doors, service droids, artificial lighting, air conditioning, and hidden assassins monitoring his every move to mention only a few.

"Here is Colberts office familiar". The young pinkett halted in front of a wooden door. At long last she had brought them to their destination.

'_Finally_'!

Not wasting another moment he barged in through the door to meet this professor.

"what! No! Familiar you can't do that"! He ignored her pitiful whines of protest and moved on past her. Her pathetic cries annoyed and insulted him greatly and he could not wait until he had sorted out his current predicament and could be rid of her.

Colbert was, despite his military upbringing, a very mild man. He almost never raised his voice, and had seemingly endless pools of patience when it came to his students. Some would say he was the Archetypal academy professor; he would have to agree. Much like the classic scholar he was made out to be he had a deep lust for magical knowledge and lore. Something these trinkets just might have an abundance of.

They were fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Colbert didn't even have to cast his detection spells to know that almost all of them were powerful magical artifacts; he could feel the power emanating from them. But the exact nature of the power inside of them was intriguing as well as rage inducing; it fit no known element and seemed fluctuate randomly and violently. Angry was the word Colbert found most appropriate.

A loud bang echoed throughout his office as the door burst open to reveal a tall pail man in wight cloth pants and a large mark across his face.

"Put that down"! He pointed at the small crystalline charm Colbert was in the process of trying to activate. After a brief pause Colbert decided that it was in his best interest to comply.

"Thank you. I apologizes for shouting but I quite enjoy having all of my internal organs inside of me". His voice sounded very welcoming to Colbert; almost inviting and had a very friendly and playful bounce to it. He couldn't shake the feeling that his voice didn't sound right coming out of that mouth.

"That is quite alright" Colbert replied trying to match his enthusiasm. "I didn't mean to cause you concern. It's just, given your... unique arrival and your outlandish attire, you are obviously a foreigner to these lands. I simply wished to learn more about you before meeting in person".

"I see" '_Unique arrival huh? Just how have we come to be on this planet? __What planet are we even on? Last thing we knew we were being engulfed by that artifact'_. "Well, it would seem we both hunger for answers; perhaps a trade would benefit us both.

"Yes, that would be nice". Colbert replied.

"good, then allow me to introduce myself. I am Darth Occulus". He reached out his hand to greet Colbert's.

"I am Professor Jean Colbert, as you have no doubt have learned by now". He took Occulus' hand into his own and gave it a firm and friendly shake.

"It's always good to hear it in a formal greeting".

"Quite". Colbert agreed. "Darth? That sound like a title".

"Yes. I come from the Sith Empire. There those with power rule. Darth is a title in recognition of power."

Those words rang in Louis' head. Did that mean he was a noble? She glanced down at the runes on her hand. '_That went a long way toward explaining these_' She thought. '_perhaps this is what happens when one noble tries to bind another, the stronger one overpowers the weaker one_'. She didn't quite know how that made her feel.

"Sith Empire? I've never heard of it." Loise blurted out.

"That doesn't surprise me". Occulus replied in a very diplomatic tone. Colbert however heard that tone from enough nobles to know that he was offended. "I had never heard of Tristan before today either".

Colbert couldn't help but smirk to himself, he could hear an undertone of: "so there". In that last statement that he was sure was lost on the young Valliere. He meant no disrespect, never. Louise was a bright young lady, academically she was one of the academy's best with a mind that rivaled even the stalwart Tabitha. She just wasn't very socially matured.

"This does remind me of one concern I have, and you no doubt have anticipated this one". Occulus' expression became significantly less warm a faint trace of accusation could be heard if you listened closely.

"Yes, I have." Colbert's own tone lost a bit of it's cheer. "The springtime summoning ritual".

"Indeed. This familiar contract I've heard so much about".

"Before I say anything, I would like to assure you that you have not been bound as a familiar".

"My new 'master' does not seem to be of this opinion". Occulus Spat the word "master out with obvious hatred and disgust.

"Yes, I suspected as much." Colbert let out a deep sigh. "She is subject to unique circumstance".

Louise began to glare. Not to any one specifically; she just wanted everyone to know she was displeased.

"She performed the summoning perfectly, the only difference being that she summoned you". Colbert explained.

"I Take it that summoning a human is uncommon".

"unheard of" Colbert did his best to ignore Occulus putting his confiscated gear back on. '_Sooner better than later I suppose_' "At least as far as I know. The binding ritual; was where things began to complicate".

Occulus cocked his brow, which went completely unnoticed since he was now fully dressed in his sith robes and his face was almost entirely covered by his hood. "I'm surprised that you continued with the ceremony given that I am human".

"Yes...the ceremony is a sacred event. Louise would have had to bind whatever came from the spell, no matter what or who it was.".

'_So they didn't bind us, but had fully intended to and were just too incompetent. Good to know'. _"You said that I wasn't bound as a familiar".

"Yes well, I should start by saying that no binding ritual has ever failed to produce a familiar before... and in a twisted sense that remains true today. You see, when Louise... "Performed" the ritual on you she did not bind you as her familiar".

Louise's face glowed crimson red with a rage that resonated deep within Occulus' being. With hatred like that it's a wonder how she hasn't already conquered this world.

"You bound her as your familiar". Colbert, deciding that he had danced around the matter for long enough, blurted this out almost like a single word. Just as Colbert thought that Louise had turned the valve on her temper as far as it could go, she gave it another 160 and was fuming with a silent rage that could be felt by both the teacher and the darth in varying degrees of perception and opinion.

Louise felt like a judge had just given her the final verdict, her fate was sealed, she would spend the rest of her life as a familiar, a servant, a slave. After all she had gone through, the study the taunting and bullying, it was over. She had failed.

"It's not fair"! The words came speeding out of her mouth long before she could stop them. Both Occulus and Colbert had turned their attention toward her. It was too late to back out, she had been committed to this course of conversation. " I'm a noble, I can't be a familiar. I'll be expelled, my family will disown me"!

Of course Occulus saw this under a much different light. A Sith never turns down free unconditional power, or a free slave. But a shrewd mind would ask whether this truly was unconditional power or a free slave. And he prided himself on his shrewd and perceptive mind. He reasoned that even if it was he didn't know whether or not the responsibility of a slave would prove to be too much of a liability to justify keeping one.

" I take it that this familiar binding ritual isn't something that can simply be undone on a whim". Occulus gave a smug condescending smirk that would go completely unnoticed under his newly affixed mask.

"No, this is a sacred ritual. I'm sorry Miss Valliere, but the runes on your hand seals the contract with Sir Occulus". Occulus shifted his attention toward the young lady's hand which was covered in cloth wrappings. She quickly receded her hand once it became apparent to her that it had become an object of scrutiny for the darth. He recalled when he had first awakened on this world, he saw her gripping the bandaged hand in pain; he could feel the dark energy radiating from it. It was impossible not to. " Even if I could, I'm not sure I would be allowed to or if I would dare risk angering the Founder ".

"I see". Occulus was still trying to debate with himself whether or not this was good thing. He looked out the window to see the sun setting. "Perhaps we should continue this later, when I've had time to wrap my head around all of this". Like much he had said this was a half truth. He really wanted time to consider his situation. But he really just needed time to gather information so the next time they met it would be from a position of power.

"Of course, take as much time as you need". Colbert gave him a warm smile in the hopes it it would ease the situation along. Occulus opted to give the illusion that it did.

In order to function in this new environment Occulus needed to learn it's rules, it's factions and it's darkest secretes. He would start with what was relatively close by. He was in an academy for force users naturally he would want to see what kind of training the students receive in case worst came to worst.

The walk to the young Valliere's quarters was just as slow and tedious as the walk to Colbert's office. Wasn't he this girls new master, shouldn't she know to keep up the pace.

She stopped dead in her tracks then turned to face Darth Occulus.

"This wasn't how it was meant to be". She said in a tone tantamount to an accusation.

"What do you mean". It was cruel, he knew exactly what she meant. The only reason he asked was to get her riled up. Hopefully enough to see just how strong she was in the dark side.

" You where supposed to be my Familiar, my servant. You were my last chance to prove myself as a mage."

"I'm afraid I don't understand what your talking about". That was also not true. This only confirmed what he suspected since their talk with the Professor. She was a failure, and recent events only served to finalize her fall into complete and utter disgrace.

Rather then reply she simply turned her back to him kept walking toward her room. If he were in the Empire this behavior from a servant would had resulted in severe punishment by means of a jolt of force lighting, or death depending on the darth. Even as a Sith he was not without mercy or compassion, a deficiency for which he had his own wife to blame. He understood that she must have been going through a hard time in her life, but this didn't mean he was going to be easy on her.

After what seemed like an hour of walking the distance of just a few minutes they reached the door, which Occulus had guessed, led to Louise's room.

"this is it, I'm afraid that there is only one bed... "

"I do not plan on sleeping tonight, there is much I must ponder". He quickly interrupted much to Louis' displeasure.

"very well, if there is nothing you require I would like to go to sleep". Louise tried her best to sound like she was still in control.

"No, you are dismissed for tonight". He loved that. He knew being part of a ruling party she would try everything to keep some semblance of pride. What kind of Sith would he be if he let her do that.

Without saying another word she turned her back to him with a huff of obvious disapproval.

He closed the door and made his way down the stone hallway. Instinctively his hand reached for a sleek pitch black cube that dangled at his side with a dozen and a half other sith trinkets and talismans. He held it only a few inches from his face and examined it closely.

It no longer passively pulsated with green energy like it had when that pure blood Thalia gave it to him. No longer furiously emanating with pure uncut power, the kind that only the dark side could provide.

"_Thalia, that blasted acolyte_'. His mind drifted toward her and immediately asked a million questions. Who was she? How did she come across this artifact? Did she know he was still alive or did she believe him dead? Did she do this for her own benefit or for a master?

He knew he wasn't going to get any answers, at least not now. But that didn't stop him from pondering. And hating.

A/N As I said in the disclaimer, this is probably the 8th or 9th time I've tried to write this and no matter what I do I am never happy with the end result. Due to a computer that kept losing data because of physical damage I kept losing data and did not have the currency to fix it or to get an Internet connection to back the files up. But now I have a new computer and the only thing stopping me from writing non stop is the highly anticipated Wasteland 2 that I have not yet played to completion 7 times over. The point of all this is that I have been burnt out this one chapter and I won't be updating this fic often because now I have other projects offline and I an sooo sick and tired of this one god damn chapter. I'm sorry if you were really looking forward to this chapter, it was not my best work.


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